It is well known in the art that lugs, driven by chains, may be used for many purposes in industry such as, for example, grouping or metering articles as a part of a packaging process. Such articles may take differing sizes and may need to be grouped differently, depending on the requirement of the type of packaging used Therefore it is necessary to alter the spacing between successive lugs on the chain.
The prior art of such lug chains teaches lugs that are mounted upon a chain using some form of relatively easily releasable mechanism, which allows each lug to be removed, by hand, from the chain before being secured again to the chain at some other position. However, the prior art does not disclose a system whereby lugs may be releasably engaged with a chain, at desired points, whilst the system is in continuous operation.
Should the system require deactivation in order to reposition the lugs, it will necessarily lead to reduced efficiency of the system through increased ‘down time’. It is therefore advantageous that the system be capable of altering the positions of the lugs whilst remaining operational.
The present invention therefore seeks to overcome or at lease minimize the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a system whereby the spacing between successive lugs on a chain may be altered without deactivating the system.